A step toward sustainable development: the nexus of environmental sustainability, technological advancement and green finance: evidence from Indonesia

Abstract

The countries face a significant difficulty in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Due to widespread pollution, SDGs pertaining to environmental sustainability in particular pose the greatest challenges. To cope up with the environmental issues, countries have adopted various measures out of which technological advancement and green finance are gaining particular importance. The present study thus aims at estimating the effect of technological advancements and green finance on environmental sustainability measured by ecological footprints under STIRPAT model in Indonesia. Time series data spanning over 1995–2020 period is collected from different secondary sources and empirical analysis is done by applying Quantile Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model. The findings indicate the positive contribution of technological advancement measured by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and green finance in environmental sustainability over whole range of quantiles (0.05–0.90) in the short as well as in the long run. However, economic growth and urbanization are found to pose serious threats to the environmental sustainability as they have positive association with ecological footprints at different quantiles. The findings suggest the Indonesian government to pay attention to significant fruitful policies aimed at the promotion of green finance and ICT technologies to ensure environmental sustainability in Indonesia.